Mr Hotmail plans $2 bn Nano City in Haryana

Project to have state-of-art institutes and world-class infrastructure.

Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia will launch a "Nano City" in Haryana. The project, to be set up in collaboration with the Haryana government, is likely to attract an initial investment of $2 billion.

Addressing reporters in Chandigarh, Bhatia said silicon technology had become obsolete and nanotechnology represented the future of IT and bio-technology. "The objective of our effort is to recreate the vibrance of Silicon Valley in Haryana," said Bhatia.

He said he shortlisted Haryana due to the initiative taken by the state government and added that he was considering some other states to launch new projects, but "Nano City" was exclusively for Haryana.

Bhatia said, "It will take 5-10 years to reap the full benefits of the project but once we are successful in this, India will take a big leap." Nothing of this kind had been done before, he asserted.

The scope for creating jobs in the knowledge-based industry was far greater than what manufacturing offered and it was time India cashed in on the boom in the industry, said Bhatia.

Principal Secretary of Haryana and Financial Commissioner, Industries, PK Chaudhary, who was also at the press conference, said a location-specific study of the project would reveal the volume of investment needed.

He added that "Nano City" would offer the best Internet connectivity, state-of-art institutes and world-class infrastructure.

He said a detailed agreement would be signed between Bhatia and the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation for this mega-project.

Chaudhary also said infrastructure for the project would be developed through the public-private partnership route. A concrete project report would be prepared in three months, he added.

Chaudhary said the state government expected this proposed city to provide, apart from nanotechnology, bio sciences, software product development, next-generation Internet products, and materials research.

"We foresee the creation of world-class research establishments on the lines of US universities and research and development centres of companies that have been the centres of innovation, to carry out multi-disciplinary and collaborative research with Indian centres of excellence, in this city. We will also aim at setting up a fast track mechanism for getting the required approvals," he added.